[VintagePunk]

I am sorry MM but I really don't agree with this. It reminds of the type of witch-hunting that right-wing conservatives use against their opponents when they get caught with a mistress or smoking a joint. I dislike Rob Ford immensely on a personal level. but this isn't personal. He's utterly unfit for office AND he's a criminal (though for some reason the police haven't done anything yet). I am not here to be the morality police because he has a sense of entitlement. Being a spoiled brat is not a crime.

I have no idea what percentage of my clothing comes from sweatshops with hellish conditions and child labour, and there are dozens of others examples I could give. If I am not boycotting companies who are doing truly abominable and even illegal things, I would feel like an absolute hypocrite boycotting companies that do business with Deco because Rob Ford smokes crack and lies (all politicians lie) and because Diane Ford is a bad mommy.

I want to win, but not by any means. It would make me no better than the Fords.

Absolutely this. Thank you for articulating another part of what I'm feeling. It just feels squicky and wrong, like we'd be sinking to their level.

 

[typezed]

I’m the first one to volunteer thousands of hours of time to coach kids in an underprivileged area and now they’re getting scholarships, now they’re getting an education. And I don’t wanna toot my own horn but now ya know where are they? If I’m not there? I feel sorry for these kids up at Don Bosco and my heart bleeds for them.

It takes some massive self-deception to say this the week when one of your more prominent players, someone who played for you for five years and was some sort of captain all of those years, so known more well to you than 90% of the players that pass through your programs, is reported to have beaten someone to death at the side of the road. Don't even need to take into account that you've been let go from your volunteer coaching (twice) because you're an asshole.

 

[Lansdude]

Notice how the transcript is missing all of the questions from the interviewer. The newspaper industry is really hurting these days if they can't be bothered to even glance at the stuff they post online. (I hate to see this kind of thing, because the Toronto Star has always been my favourite newspaper. And this definitely isn't the first example of a marked decline in proofreading and editing....)

Newspapers are fitfully trying to transition to 24 hour/breaking/multimedia news operations. Couple the imperative to get as much news out as fast as possible with downsizing and outsourcing jobs like copyediting and layouts, and you start getting frequent mistakes and hiccups. It's sad to watch; believe me, they're trying.

 

[cutlass]

Are the reasons he was let go from coaching on the public record anywhere? I sort of feel this rumour might have some truth to it.

 

[Peepers]

Ford a Star at Argos game

http://www.torontosun.com/2013/11/17/ford-a-star-at-argos-game

But what should have been a sombre exit for fans, ended up being a raucous parade for an embattled, world-famous politician.

“Rob Ford, Rob Ford, Rob Ford,” chanted the mob which — with the help of Rogers Centre Security and Toronto Police — ushered the mayor out into his famous Black Escalade.

The atmosphere around the mayor was rabid. In fact, it was a frenzy.

In 22 years of covering the biggest stars who come to Toronto, I have never seen any other human receive this kind of adulation and spirited veneration.

Pure adulation. Adoration. Lionization.

Sorry Anti-Ford Nation, or the 42 other members of city council and those lining up to run for mayor, but that’s what happened.

If it changes, I will let you know.

Photo credit: Joe Warmington

 

[juniorfox]

Are the reasons he was let go from coaching on the public record anywhere? I sort of feel this rumour might have some truth to it.

http://globalnews.ca/news/582404/mayor-rob-ford-dropped-as-coach-of-don-bosco-eagles-tcdsb/

It happened right after the original Gawker story. The school says that wasn't the direct reason though. Whether that's PR or whether that means there was something else, who knows.

I think the whole thing sounds pretty ridiculous though and the people who are saying that one post on some shitty forum is hardly evidence of anything are right.

 

[Roy G Biv]

Sooooo, a bunch of doofus, Ford Nation football fans will continue to support Rob Ford.

Slowwwww, news day...

 

[newearthling]

I don't think this has been posted.
http://www.johnmcgrath.ca/?p=114

Resolving the Crisis of Legitimacy at Toronto City Hall
Posted on November 16, 2013
...
(The crisis of legitimacy, in case you don’t click on the above link, is the result of two competing claims of city-wide legitimate governance: One from the mayor, who says that he alone was elected by the people of the city; and another from council itself, which can reasonably claim to represent the city entire as well. This is a structural flaw that Rob Ford’s tenure has made apparent, but, I submit, is not easily dismissed as simply a problem with Rob Ford. Those Ford voters, after all, aren’t going anywhere.)
...
Monday will see Ford made, in effect, in to a councillor-at-large: he will have no special privileges except for those that provincial law requires he have, and even those won’t be administered without resistance from council. He will, in every way council currently has at its disposal, have been made powerless.

Except he won’t be powerless, he’ll still be a member of council. And he’s made it clear that he’s going to use the abilities he has as a member of council to prevent the work of council from getting done. He explicitly threatened to filibuster council in response to their discipline on Friday:

Mayor Rob Ford says he’s going to hold every item until his “dying day” on the council floor #TOpoli

— Don Peat (@reporterdonpeat) November 15, 2013

...
Rob Ford has explicitly stated that he does not intend to do his job under S. 133 (1) clauses A or B. Council has made C irrelevant. They can’t technically take D away from him but he’s already sufficiently toxic that he can’t represent the city at the Santa Claus Parade or an Argos-Ticats game. So Ford, in a very literal sense, cannot do the job he was hired to.
...

And…. nothing, from council. Denzil Minnan-Wong is still talking about this, but councillors by and large don’t seem ready to take this step. Why this should be so is beyond me. Rob Ford has done everything short of literally defecating in the council chambers, but the line from councillors is that if he isn’t actually incarcerated he should get to keep his seat.

This is a ridiculous threshold to set for public office. I’m surprised that even needs to be said. What it amounts to saying is that, short of serious crimes, the only real limit to an abuse of public trust is the abuser’s own sense of shame.

It’s also undemocratic, though many seem to misunderstand this. An election isn’t a get out of jail free card. It’s a conditional license granted by the people to represent them. Just because that license is normally reviewed at regular intervals (elections) doesn’t mean that’s the only permissible way to do so.
...
And to be clear: it’s not the basic process of council that’s at issue here. Rob Ford is a bad actor, who needs to be punished. Previous punishments have been ineffective, and future punishments along the same line will be equally ineffective. So council needs something stronger. That means expulsion.

 

[cutlass]

Thanks for posting the Don Bosco stuff. I don't know, given the outrageous acts he has already done, this does not seem that far of a stretch.
As my mom used to say, where there is smoke there is fire. Plus he likes to objectify women as sex objects including his own wife. I am sure he was talking about "boxes and Pussy" to the players. He doesn't really have a filter after all.

 

[RC8]

Funny how Warmington finds that some people's stupidity and ignorance is somehow redeeming the Fords.

The truth is, at this stage, you could only love Ford if you hate Toronto OR if you are profoundly, profoundly, profoundly ignorant of what's going on.

"We built a subway..." (you haven't) "... when was the last time Toronto built a subway?" David Miller.

Even if I hated Miller I could not stand and support someone who lies so blatantly, who treats people like they are complete imbeciles.

 

[juniorfox]

Rob Ford has explicitly stated that he does not intend to do his job under S. 133 (1) clauses A or B. Council has made C irrelevant. They can’t technically take D away from him but he’s already sufficiently toxic that he can’t represent the city at the Santa Claus Parade or an Argos-Ticats game. So Ford, in a very literal sense, cannot do the job he was hired to.

Clause A states: to act as chief executive officer of the City;

This seems extremely vague to me. What exactly does this entail/confer as far as specific powers?

 

[dt_toronto_geek]

They *are* back at work--once the Ford business was over and done with last week, Council dealt with other "normal" matters (albeit too routine-business unsexy to make news headlines), and coped just fine with the Ford element marginalized. And they would've coped even better were it not for the Fords nuisance-holding items which they wound up at the pitiful losing end of.

*Doug* might ride out his term, as he's just a lowly councillor who's been (thus far) relatively off-orbit re the police investigations, substance abuse issues, etc. If you notice, there's been no active Council effort to force Doug out of his position--because at this point, that'd be jumping the gun...

Council was not really operating normally, dealing with the unsexy items. From what I saw he held back about 20 Motions and wasted perhaps an hour & a half questioning every single one of them to City Staff, the Planner or the Solicitor. The sunset clause at 3:30 kept them from completing what should have been a pretty easy agenda, which included holding back Vaughan's next Motion that he said will stop construction on a project if not approved and cost the city millions of dollars when they sue (don't know if that's true or not). Bottom line, Ford then trots out to the media and exclaims that the left-wing Councillors (actually, all Councillors present except brother Doug) just spent $1.1M (on traffic lights, EA's, appeals at the OMB etc.) even though he "fought and fought" for the taxpayer, and there was the sound byte to close off the day at City Hall for his followers. They continue to work and get the job done, albeit with Ford as a major thorn in their side. Is this the "new Rob Ford"?
I think Doug will continue until the end of his term advising Rob, or as we've come to learn, running the city. It will be interesting to see how Rob operates if he wins another term without brother Doug at his side.

 

[freshcutgrass]

If this pubic appearance is any indication, Ford not only survived last week’s political body blows, but the civic leader is hellbent on to getting back up off the canvas.

Poor l'il Joe Warmington. Obviously trapped in that echo chamber with the rest of Ford Nashun.

Ford's political career is already over.

His media popularity certainly isn't. He's simply the new gold standard for epically stupid politicians. How soon people tire of him depends on just how much dirt is still to be gleaned. And I doubt the mountain of evidence still to be released is going to do anything else but add more nails to his coffin.

 

[cutlass]

Everyone says there will be more evidence, I just wonder why so many people think so. If so, how much longer before it all comes out?

 

[anonymoose]

Poor l'il Joe Warmington. Obviously trapped in that echo chamber with the rest of Ford Nashun.

Ford's political career is already over.

His media popularity certainly isn't. He's simply the new gold standard for epically stupid politicians. How soon people tire of him depends on just how much dirt is still to be gleaned. And I doubt the mountain of evidence still to be released is going to do anything else but add more nails to his coffin.

Warmington seems to be a lot like Ford Nation, in the sense that the more Ford abuses (*) them, the more they love him.

(* i.e. With blatant lies or literal abuse, as in the case of Rob Ford calling up Warmington and verbally abusing him.)

Through the magic of cognitive dissonance, the more he lies to them, the more they'll believe that "he's the most honest politician in Canada". Similarly, with every admission of dangerous and/or illegal behaviour, he becomes a better role model for kids.